Leaderboard

After cleaning my filthy airbrush, I was also able to finally cut in the green on the cowl. Not the neatest job in the world, but fairly easy to touch-up, thank goodness.

And now drum roll please...................BLUE PAINT! This blue is the Subaru STI metallic blue from MRP, and it comes off much lighter in these pics than it actually is. Jeffs mount is actually tad darker blue, but not as much as these pics lead on. I actually like the MRP Subaru blue on here, as it just looks different when looked at straight on in the light. It appears much lighter and more metallic. However the paint is all down now on the main airframe. The paint also appears much more grainy in pics than it actually is IRL, and I can only attribute that to the metallic particles/nature of the paint itself. This is raw out of the paint shop, and will all get smoothed, color sanded, buffed then cleared eventually (after the touch-up stage): I forget to snap a pic of the flying surfaces and wheel pants after painting, but sacrifice it to say they look like this same blue. Just as, if not more important was the clear canopy, which I had glued on some hinges and then masked the clear sections off of both in and out: I also got the majority of the prop blades painted too, with only 1 needing touch-up in one red area. Once hardened off, I will mask the red/black areas off, then spray the aluminum color, then color sand and clear these as well: I will let all of this harden off for 24 hours + , then unmask things and see how bad it is. I will then start the arduous task of touch-ups on such a complex scheme as this. The end goal is to get all the touch-ups done, then color sand the whole thing with 6000, 8000, 12000 polishing pads, then MRP super clear. Thanks for looking in on me!

Afternoon lads and lasses... I've been doing some detailing of the wings recently. I have decided to tackle the out-rigger bays, so the initial task was work out their exact location and box in the bays using plastic card: The bay roofs were left separate so that they could be detailed without the wing obstructing access. I must stress I've gone for representation over accuracy here, so don't shoot me for making it up a little as I went along: When in-situ they will look ok to my eye: The same process of course had to be repeated twice: I've also cut out and boxed in the chaff dispensers on the lower side of the wings: Still lots to do before the wings can be joined, but they're starting to take shape: Now for the flaps... more plastic card at the ready! All the best, Tom

This time the model is very unusual for me. Over one meter to build and paint, model made with one addition: Deck from Pontos, the rest is a model straight from the box. After building this model, I understood that folding ship models is a real big challenge. USS Missouri Trumpeter 1: 200 From spray booth: Final:

Here was a project on my bucket list that finally got completed.

Well, they are certainly working on a master. Here are some pics of last years model show in Brno with the following text: "At the HpH booth in Brno, the Gigant laminate parts were seen together. Model preparation is already heading to a successful end. The model is really impressive." Estimated price is in the €1.400,- range. They also announced a Heinkel He177 at some time in the future!

Thanks Kev and Gaz The build slowly grinds on - far too many sunny days and jobs to do. Finally got everything sorted, smoothed and prepped enough) in the pit to get some initial paint and weathering on. I’ll spare everyone the first coat of primer (Ultimate Grey), subsequent cleanup (I’m far messier that I thought possible and the dust!!!!!) followed by Mr Finisher (1500 Black...what a fab top coat primer). Top coat is Tamiya XF-71 thinned with Mr Color Levelling Thinner. I wanted quite a well used interior as N219 was the longest serving test bed and would have been exposed to quite a bit of salt water Initial tonal variation weathering with Game Colour Wash (Black, Dark Blue and Dark Green - Black on its own looked lifeless) I tiny bit of micro chipping with graphite and silver pencils. Here’s the pics And a quick test fit... almost impossible to photograph And the instrument panel as it stands - the white patch is where the compass will be attached, probably right at the end, should I ever get that far. With fresh eyes I think I need to add a little more colour modulation and contrast to the main interior green but at least I’m a much closer to buttoning her up so I can tackle the outside once and for all ( I reckon another year should do it! ) Got a busy few weeks away with work.. until next time and thanks for looking. Torben

Hi all, I thought you might like to see my 14th 1:32 scale build - The Bleriot built Spad XIII C.1, Number 26 of ‘C’ flight, 27th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, based at Rembercourt, near Verdun, France during September 1918. This was one of the Spad XIII’s flown by Francis ‘Frank’ Joseph Anthony Luke Jnr, the ‘Arizona Balloon Buster'. This kit is the old Hobby Craft SPAD XIII 'International' kit, which is I believe was the only 1:32 scale of the Spad XIII made. The kit was, as expected, fairly basic and had no engine at all. In fact the whole forward fuselage was blocked off. I didn’t recall ever seeing this kit made with an engine installed, so I decided to give it a go. The basic list of changes/additions to the model are: Scratch built: Radiator shutter control rods (Micro-tube). Radiator drain valve (Micro-tube). Cockpit head rest support frame. Fuselage internal storage and cross members (Micro-rod). Engine bulkhead. Decking panel right gun - ejection chute. Forward gun mounting brackets (thin brass sheet). Engine access panels - wire mesh. Ventral fuel tank cap. Fuselage lifting straps. Fuel tank rip (jettison) panel. Oil cooler drain valve (Micro-tube). Ring gun sight and mounting bar (thin brass sheet). Undercarriage struts. Wing inboard 'H' struts (Micro-tube). Wing outboard rear struts (Micro-tube). Wing strut rigging fittings (photo-etch). External aileron operating bell-crank and rods (Micro-tube). Exhaust pipe support brackets (Micro-tube). Cockpit: - Fuel, oil and vent pipes (Micro-tube) - Cockpit frame wire bracing - Additional instrumentation - Instruments pipes/cables (Micro-tube) - Gun firing cables (lead wire) - Fuel rip panel T-bar handle (Micro-tube) - Mallet (freeing gun stoppages) (Micro-tube) - Pilot's seat cushion (Milliput) - Rudder bar foot straps (lead wire) - Top frame above pilot's head - Flight control cables Engine: 'Wingnut Wings' Hispano-Suiza V8 engine built (detail modified) - Ignition leads, support tubes and magneto connection (Micro-tube/lead wire) - Engine support beams - Carburettor air intake - Air breather and pipe (Micro-tube) - Fuel manifold primer valves (Micro-tube) - Cooling/heating system pipes and filler (Micro-tube) - Gun cooling jacket ‘stay’ rods (Micro-tube) - Various fuel, coolant and control rods (Micro-tube) Modified or corrected: Rudder, Ailerons and Elevator animated. Louvres in engine panels opened. Engine valve gear cooling fairings drilled. Forward decking panel separated. Engine cowl cooling apertures created. Fuel filler aperture. Cockpit surround panel modified. Forward fuselage, decking panel and cockpit floor modified. Exhaust tail pipes Aftermarket additions: 'Proper Plane' hand made propeller ('De La Grandville') 'Aviattic' Spad XIII wheels. ‘Aviattic’ decal and figure set (Frank Luke Jnr) 'HGW Models' seat belts. 'Gaspatch' .303 standard Vickers machine gun (modified). ‘Gaspatch’ Vickers ‘Balloon’ machine gun (modified). 'Gaspatch' turnbuckles. 'Albion Alloys' micro-tube. 'Steelon' 0.12 mm mono-filament. 'Polak' grass mat. 'Wings Cockpit' and ‘Copper State' figures. 'Airscale' instruments bezels. As usual I've created a downloadable build log in Adobe PDF format, for those who might want to refer to it for reference or build details. It contains full step by step descriptions of the model build, its modifications/changes and is also supported with illustrations and photographs. If viewed in Adobe Reader, each build log has book marked chapters/headings for easier navigation through the log. NOTE: Due to the complexity of this build, the PDF build log is large at over 200 pages (download size is close to 10 Meg). My model website has the gallery page, so to view any model, go to the gallery and select it. If it has a PDF build log, it will be available to download using the 'PDF' icon on that models photo's page. For any photograph, just click the photo to enlarge or reduce the viewing size. PC link: http://igavh2.xara.hosting/index.htm Mobile device link: Igavh2.xara.hosting My next model will be the ’Wingnut Wings’ 1:32 scale model of the German ‘Hansa-Brandenberg W.29’, a twin float, two seat naval patrol aircraft.

My last job, This is the new Great Wall Hobby model, Su-35S 1:48 scale. This is realy good model with beautifully cast details and well fitted. Made as always straight from the box.

Some pictures from the May and July 3rd events at Cavanaugh Flight Museum.

And finally another picture. Here you can see clearly how beautiful and elegant the mig21 is. I hope you liked my MiG. Many greetings from Germany Christian Lepold

Thanks one and all........................we have (to the degree I had hoped anyway) SUCCESS!! Again, the blue looks a lot lighter and brighter under my photo booth lights than it actually is, but the blue is a tad lighter still than Jeffs real planes blue is, but hey-ho, at this point with all of the potential spots to lift a mask, peel a corner, bleed or otherwise get over-spray, Ill take this result as a starting point for sure! It is a great base to start the touchup process, and I know I keep harping that point, but I guess with this scheme I anticipated 3 color airbrush touch up stage that will likely entail touching up all 3 colors by airbrush. It will take an extra bit of time but will be worth it in the end. Although the blue did turn out decent, as I had predicted, this thing will now need a lot of touch-up paint work for the blue, red and white. This is raw out of the paint booth, but you can see there are a lot of areas of over-spray, paint bleed and general paint scheme misalignment................. MORE.................................

Decals on. Wash next.

It may still be in flyable condition, but I haven't seen it fly. It won an award at Oshkosh in 1995.

Doing black base for NMF. Darn thing wants to take off when the fan is blowing, so if the picture is a bit blurry, it's because the thing is moving.

I think you're being rather unfair on von Richthofen. Shooting down enemy aircraft was his job (indeed, it was the job of any scout pilot on either side). It was hardly von Richthofen's fault if a number of those he shot down were less experienced or were in inferior aircraft. 'Ace vs. Ace' combat was an extremely rare occurrence. If you study the records of the aces of both sides, you'll find that the majority built up their kills by shooting down less-experienced pilots in inferior aircraft, usually two-seaters. There's no evidence that MvR 'liked to fly above the fighting looking for these young pilots and murder them'. If you read the combat accounts of the time, you'll find that he led his fellow pilots into the fight, not sitting above it waiting for some newcomer to come along. Albert Ball and James McCudden both specialised in hunting down lone German two-seater aircraft and attacking them when the odds were entirely in their favour - indeed, both liked to approach them from below and behind, out of the view of the observer, and kill them at close range. Were they murdering these people, or fighting a war? It's also not true that von Richthofen's fame was down to him being 'royalty'. He was a member of the nobility, yes, but so too were significant portions of the German officer corps. He wasn't a member of the royal family, he was a Freiherr (Baron), a title which applied equally to all male-line descendants of the original grantee in perpetuity: All legitimate sons of a Freiherr shared his title and rank, and could be referred to as Freiherr. MvR's fame owes much to the media of the time, yes - but then again, so to do Voss, Berthold, Bockle, Immelmann, Rickenbacker, Ball, McCudden, Bishop... People have this romanticised view of WWI aviation, that it was all 'Knights of the Sky' dogfights between aces and waving nobly at a gallant foe instead of shooting them down if they had run out of ammunition. The reality is that it was a brutal, violent kill-or-be-killed environment where you took every advantage that you could, or it might be you burning to death in the air.

Same boat here. I need to reach the age my grandfather was at his death, 100, to even have a chance of completing cutting the stash down a bit.

Wow! so my last post was over 3 months ago....... I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth (not entirely anyway) and the old girl is still very much on the bench, well in fact, a new bench!!! I've also been away a lot with work, so not the greatest of progress to show, but it still is progress First of all, the bench.... Got this one for a really good price (wink wink ) and I've been taking the time to customize and set it up as to how I want it. I've also designed a set of retractable caster wheels so if I need to move or clean around it, I can just jack it up and away I go! I still have a lot more to go on it, but at least it's in a useable state and the show can continue....... I'm also getting my contortion/yoga practice in drilling holes and fitting various brackets to it I made custom lighting using two LED downlights from Bunnings and 3D printing brackets to hold them. The lights are completely repositionable to where I need direct light, and can switch between cool white, warm white and natural light, whihc is very handy when it comes to mixing and painting colours! Anyway, what's going on with the Fort? Well I've set aside the control surfaces for a little while yet and have been making some progress on the "bathtub." This, like getting the lines of the cockpit right, will be a critical focal point if I'm going to pull off this conversion convincingly. I did make one a while ago using the 3D printer, but I was never happy with the shape. I redesigned it and went down the vac-forming path following the success I had with the nose cone.... As usual, it took a few goes to get right and keep the bubbling to a minimum. This also meant I did not have to retrospectively make a clear panel for the rear of the tub later on.... Why is it in two parts? Only because of the limited size of my little vac former...... Like all things to do with this project, trying to work out the actual size of the window panel proved nearly impossible, so I deferred once again to the trusty eyeball The bathtub can only be added once the two fuselage halves are together permanently, so it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. I joined all the pieces together and reinforced them using araldite and styrene. This will be hidden by the cushion and side walls so I'm not too concerned with neatness at this point.... Now it came down to a fair amount of whittling to get a nice corresponding contour to the top of the tub where it will meet the fuselage. I also noted that the new tub over lapped the wing root fairing on the existing kit. This isn't right, so I carefully reshaped the fairing to give a new contour....... this is before: You can see the current vs the new lines in this photo: And after.... Still needs some refinement, but I feel I'm on the right track, and the change is subtle enough not to ruin the clean lines of the B-17.. So that's kinda where it's at right now....I'm going to start fitting out the inside and making the gun mount brackets. There quite a bit of metal work in here, so I need to make sure the walls are nice and rigid to give me a solid and true surface to work off.... More updates soon! Craig

Thanks, I must give credit to Iwata airbrushes and Tamiya paints, they did the work, I was just the one pulling the trigger and scribbling all over the thing.

Some more progress today, fellas, and I'm pretty happy about that. MLG gears and doors now all dolled up. Just some dirtying up, and they'll be good to go.

I'm 61 and have the 32nd B-17F and B-25J strafer plus the 1/200 USS Arizona to build....and several others to build as well! I don't buy green banana's anymore!

Hello everyone... back at it last night. I'm concentrating on getting the nose interior finished, to that end I began with the machine gun belts. I decided to paint them all while I was at it. I did not paint the ball turret belts, since I removed the kit location for the ammo boxes in favor of fashioning my own in the correct locations. I will need to carefully soften (with heat) the kits belts in this area, and see if I can mange to get them to work before painting them. I used MM Brass Enamel for the rounds themselves. I meant to get the Acrylic, but grabbed the wrong bottle last night at the local hobby store somehow, and didn't realize it until I was home and they were closed. So I decided to live with it. After the Brass dried for about and hour I painted the belts with MM Steel, acrylic, and set aside for another 30 minutes or so. A wash with Vallejo black thinned 50/50 with distilled water was next, a couple of applications and I was content, you can see the results below. Too dark? Too light?... opinions always appreciated. They have not been given a dull coat yet... as I'm a little unsure if its needed? Again, any tips are appreciated. I do read resources from elsewhere on this site for assistance, but always appreciate hearing form other modelers in real time. Machine guns tonight! My PE set came with some nice looking barrels and I'll be using those (at the appropriate time of course!) The gun themselves will be the kit parts. Also before I forget again, I've been looking for any thread concerning errors in the instructions for this kit, with no luck. The engines in particular, specifically the cowl flap pieces they mount to seems to call for two mounts to be used from tree "H" where I only have one on "H" and one on "I" (eye) for this area? I'll be getting a new camera in early August, so the photos will hopefully improve. No way to do decent macros with my iPad Pro that I can find. Thanks again, more to come! R/S David

With the mid section figured out I went on to the aft section.. more wire, paper and bits... It looked pretty good so back to the mid section and redo everything on the other side... much harder 'cause it has to match.. ... but finally with a bit of piping from stretched sprue... I think I'm happy with it... busy, but not TOO busy... things look believable. Detailing is like weathering.. too much or too little looks wrong.... I think I got this right.. might need a bit more here and there but will have to wait till it's primed to get a better impression. Anyhoo... that's it for this time.. thanks all for hanging in and sharing this build.. the comments help a lot.

I swear, I will finish this one before starting another kit! I don't remember the last time I felt this motivated to build a kit. Sorry for the clutter, I'm going at it so fast, I'm not even taking time to clean up!! Quite a bit has been done since this on. I'll up date later with new pics.

This is the Hasegawa 1/20 Ma.K. Grosser Hund

Well, isn't that just spectacular! Kev

Thumbs up Brian - sweet as... Torben

Hi for a Seaking, or a Seasprite, a CH-46 or a CH-53 of the 80s or the 90s, here is an US Navy helicopter pilot whith SPH-3C helmet and SV-2B survival vest Who build a 1/32 Seaking ? cheers Norbert

These engines are monsters!! I'm going to have a lot of fun building it.

A few goodies arrived for my HKM B17-G

Well, at least it's already over 100 F here now, so Phoenix won't be such a shock to my system. I already have a serious redneck tan going from working outside in the sun. Gotta get acclimated you know!

yeah I was hopin for a another 20+ years to at least reach the age my father and mother are now (both still living and in their 70s) but my health issues of the last year (the big C) leave me thinking it unlikely. Still, they can just bury my stash with me - even if I don't build em all I still enjoy reviewing the kits, planning what pilot and schemes they will be, researchin' etc.

Great build! I can see Col. Turner jumping out without his parachute! (Where Eagles Dare)

Hi Mark, thanks. I am glad you like it. The wheels are made the same way as the parts for the Nozzle. With a huge cnc maschine. First we made a fullscale scan from the real 1:1 scale wheel and designed a 1:32 scale version. The details are amazing. Even the small parts like the bolts and the air filling connector is made seperate. It isn`t shown in that picture but you will see it when i continue with the gear. Cheers Kai

Quick update.... Took a few photos last night. first one is of the tail section and how I had to modify things to fit. The circular prop protector (lack of better words?) wasn't even large enough to fit into the vertical fin location points. The horizontal fins had notches cut out for them to fit into. I wound up cutting the half circles in half, epoxying into place and using styrene card stock glued together as a filler on the horizontals. I then shaped the styrene to blend with the fins. Half circles get support bars. Here's a shot of the really nasty part they cast from this plastic feeling resin laying under the part I made of brass rod and Evergreen stock. It was horrible looking and was not straight. One I get my parts fitted, shaped and trimmed (I had just epoxied them in place here) I'll add tiny white glue drops for more rivet detail so they will blend in. Main wheel house- comes with a vacuum formed sheet of "bubbles" you have to cut out. Unfortunately, after I cleaned up the very rough casting on the inside of the windows, there was no way to get the bubbles to fit so large of an opening. I again used Evergreen stock, epoxied into place to take up the space. I'll paint these areas and then glue in the bubbles with RC56 glue designed for cluing canopies on R/C airplanes. I have dental syringes on order from Amazon so I can squirt the RC56 out like a caulk gun. Back of the wheel house gets a window. I guess I was supposed to just use the scrap from the bubbles to cut a glass out for this. There was no way to hold the glass in place though! This opening had a frame with rivet details all around it. I filed them off and I'm going to use glass from microscope slide covers and cut a window. I'll then add evergreen stock to the edge of the glass along with more white glue rivets then I'll glue it in place. That's all for now. The real treat will be seeing how I fix the horrible bubble frames for the big salon bubbles on the side. They sent resin cast frames, but they are not even symmetrical. Got plans on more Evergreen stock and stretched and bent sprue to fix these areas.

It took some time, but I did manage to eliminate all of the seams from the gun panel inserts too.

The main build is complete. Now comes the big task of painting this beast overall black by brush ! My hat off to anyone that builds this kit "full display" It's a very complex kit with all those small parts. Mine is more like the Revell kit.Just with bigger parts.I made it easy.

So one of the great mysteries for me after finishing my F-5E, is why this kit has the AIM-9B and AIM-9L but no AIM-9J. The vast majority of F-5Es were sold abroad with the AIM-9J and the aggressor birds carried the AIM-9L during and after ACEVAL/AIMVAL. If we have the adversary birds as decal options, why no ACMI pod (guess what's going to happen to my AIM-9s)? Having AIM-7s as an option made me wonder what research source was used for this kit? Yes, the (lack of) intake trunks was another mystery, but painting the inside of the fuselage black minimized that potential eyesore. Backdating the kit to an early F-5E turned out to be straightforward, especially with all of the good information in this thread, so thank you all!

Hello All- Built this A-1J from the ZM kit. It is gear-up on a stick with a motorized prop. Great kit! This Spad carries the personal markings of a friend of mine; Randy "Bert" Bertrand. Bert and I flew together at United, and we were crashpad room mates in ORD. Bert would keep me up into the wee hours telling me incredible stories about flying the A-1 as a young Lieutenant in Vietnam. He went on to fly the A-7 and F-15. Awesome dude! He lives in Tampa now and is retired- Maybe someday I'll take it to him. I'll take better pictures of this someday...but for now: The base isn't finished in these pics..but you get the idea Thanks for stopping by. Bring beer next time! Cheers Pete

The bump in the road has been smoothed out. I decided that the nose gear was too long , so I shortened it. Plus it broke where the wheel fork joins the strut. So while I sorted this out I continued work by adding wheel doors and Sidewinder rails. And the Navpac....and if you look closely the 20mm cannon barrels. Thanks, Dan

And the joining:

An eagle-eyed customer has pointed out a minor error in the text of the book, so I've just finished uploading v1.1 of the book, which corrects this error. If you've already bought the book, you can re-download the new version free-of-charge via your original download link. New purchasers will of course get the latest version by default. Thanks to everyone who has purchased the book so far! Kev

Evening all - having missed the group build deadline (quelle surprise!) I'd like to move this to the main WIP section… would one of the moderators please oblige. Thanks Kev, Alain, Peter and Gord.. sorry its been a while. Life's been very hectic recently with little time for bench work. I've also been struggling to finalise the instrument panel. My first attempt (several pages back) didn't work out, not only due to being a fraction too big once I'd fitted the sidewalls but also the airscale dials detached too easily when the acetate flexed as I trimmed it to size. Bear with the lengthy text below because I may have discovered a new technique (certainly new to me) via the medium of happy accident! So, I reduced the size of the original artwork by 3% and tried again with the same technique. Using a regular (black) toner printer and photocopy-proof acetate again the design was printed in reverse on the reverse side so the back of the acetate would act as the lens when viewed from that side. I then sprayed the printed side with white primer and left it to dry. Once dry, I flooded a small area of 20thou card with a thin layer of the thinnest superglue I could find and stuck the primer-side down making sure of no air bubbles. I then cut another piece of 20thou plastic sheet to the correct size of the instrument panel to use as a template and once positioned over my printed acetate sandwich carefully trimmed with a new blade. It was at this stage that the problems began again. Basically no matter how carefully I trimmed the edges of the acetate started to bow up and peel away slightly at the edges as well as ripple across the surface. After several more failed attempts I ended up peeling off the acetate completely in a hissy fit! Low and behold underneath was a beautifully printed flat design which appeared to be printed directly on the 20thou sheet. the removed acetate had no design left on it. What seems to have happened is the fixed toner was more attached to the primer layer than the acetate so transferred very accurately. I quickly coated the fragile print by dipping the whole thing in Future and left to dry. After 15mins the airscale dials were then attached in position with more Future. What happed then was all the areas outside of the dials seemed to ripple up fractionally so I started to scrape it away with a scalpel blade. It came away easily in a slightly gooey soft black scrapings as the primer/superglue/toner and Future all reacted together. I have to admit I'm surprised that anything would soften the set superglue like that… any Chemistry majors out there? The end result all nice and clean… Phew! BTW the spirit level was made from a trimmed down large, circular airscale lens with the spirit tube made from fine stretched sprue I now need to drop in some Microscale to make the lenses but will wait til much later. All dry fitted in... The large gunsight style compass was made in the same way with hand trimmed brass sheet as a bracket. I've only got to add a few bolt heads and the cable out of the back. I've yet to work out where the other end of this cable will go - either through the instrument panel somewhere or tucked in around the top. Any ideas anyone? Thanks for looking Torben